Another Stupid Isekai

A hundred and fifty days took me to get the next upgrade of the device. The sixth one. It was necessary to pursue my goal of creating golems because I needed the fourth tier of the \'Infuser\' class to get the necessary expertise to even try.

So after initial investments in the class, I switched completely to chasing that upgrade. I was pushing myself quite hard because this whole hunting started to be quite exhausting. My clear speed without motivation got slower, and I quite often found myself playing with monsters instead of getting rid of the as fast as possible.

I managed to get all \'Artificer\' artificer skills to the next level, before realizing there was no way for me to gain the evolution any time soon. Instinctive thought was once again, to use the crystals gained from ghosts, but I prevented myself from doing that, instead, I paused the whole \'golem creator\' idea, to first prepare the environment for it.

I was left with 76 934 200 points after getting the sixth upgrade of the device. I was also quite sure it should be sufficient for my goal. Not to mention the fact that Tihana started to insist I would go with them once again, so they could try to kill the orc boss because it was too much of a gamble without me as emergency support.

I kept declining, knowing it would cost me a whole day, and pushing it in time because I was very close to creating more hunting grounds around the city.

Once again the ground shook when I placed my hand over the sapling. This time, though the earthquake was quite strong. It was late in the day, and people came out of their houses to check what the hell was happening because in a few houses the windows broke.

The cobblestone around the pedestal fell underground, then the pedestal itself vanished into the dark hole, just to emerge soon after. This time bigger, filling all the new space. It was also slightly taller.

The diameter was close enough to force the users to step on the pedestal before touching the swirling sphere, which, once again, stopped rotating. A weird, pulsing vibration shook its surface when it expanded slightly. This repeated a few times, until it stopped, making the sapling significantly bigger.

It was still not as big as the one in Loistavadvaar, but slowly getting there.

- Holy shit - I heard from being my back when everything stopped.

The voice belonged to Lucas. I looked over my shoulder at him. He seemed to be slightly disturbed.

- That was violent - he added.

Some other hunters in the vicinity agreed with his words.

- Isn\'t it bigger than the one in Arc? - somebody suddenly asked.

- Does it mean we can now open a portal, like the one that connects Arc with Earth? - somebody asked a follow-up question.

Everybody suddenly looked at that guy, then at me. Obviously, I was the one who had the answer, but instead, I gave them a question.

- Do you want to share this place with a flood of hundreds of people? - my eyebrows climbed up my forehead.

Total silence answered me. It was greed that woke up in those people. There was no way they would want some randoms chasing their goblins, and taking their crystals. They wanted it all for themselves until they would get so strong, that they could rival the famous hunters. Maybe then they would go for the portal, but definitely not before.

- That\'s what I thought - I said after a moment of waiting.

- But opening a porta is possible? - suddenly Lucas asked me.

- Yes - I answered. - It is possible, but I don\'t want to do it. Neither do you.

- It\'s too early - Marvin said from the crowd. - We just began exploring this place properly. We still have plenty to do here. It would be nice to open up, but definitely not now. In two, maybe three years, I think.

He earned himself a few agreeing voices from other hunters.

- Let\'s then bring the topic back in two or three years - I said.

Obviously, I didn\'t want the topic to be brought up ever again, because there was no way I was gonna open any freaking portal to anywhere. The device was planted in that world for one and only reason, of bearing a fruit for me to consume.

I left the city center after that. The talking made me exhausted. I knew that I should go out there and hunt the locations which restarted, but I just couldn\'t make myself go for it.

It was already over a year since we came to this place. As a matter of fact, we were quite deep into our second year already. For me, it was too slow. I used so much time but barely made any progress.

I was stuck there, and instead of spending time with my family, I had to chase weak monsters all the time. I only had those small glimpses when I could enjoy our time together.

Fortunately, Celestine seemed to be doing a great job, since the kids looked happy, and behaved well, so it wasn\'t all that bad. Still, I wanted to do better, and I wanted some free time I could spend doing useless things, instead of hunting without breaks every day.

It was shocking, but I realized that I was approaching my breaking point.

"Have I gone weaker?" I asked myself on my walk home.

Obviously not physically, but mentally it could be the case. I wasn\'t any longer motivated. The goal I wished to reach was too far, so I couldn\'t even see it. I didn\'t have the carrot hanging on the end of a stick, so it looked awfully like there was nothing to chase. On top of that, there were other things I wished to do, which required time I didn\'t have.

"I need to find a way", I told myself.

I needed to figure out a solution, so I could keep on going.